English literature презентация

What is Literature?
Poems, plays, novels and short stories in a given language collectively make up a national literature.
It is never static.
For the reader literature is simply beautiful, meaningful writing.

Why do we read literature?
Books provide an escape from our daily lives by transporting us to different times and places (escapism).
Books are a source of knowledge and information.
Books break down our personal barriers.
Books stir up our emotions. They help us to understand ourselves and others. Literature widens our field of vision.

Why do we analyse literature?
An analytical approach to literature involves careful observation and drawing conclusions, a way of learning more about how texts are structured, provides the vocabulary(setting, character, plot, point of view), makes us more receptive and responsive readers.

What is poetry?
Poetry emerges from the interplay between the meaning of words and their arrangement on paper.
“Poetry is the best words in the best order.”
Samuel Taylor Coleridge.

Figures of speech
Personification
Simile
Alliteration
Metaphor
Onomatopoeia
Assonance
Hyperbole
Imagery
Symbols
Irony

What is drama?
What we call the play is only one component of drama. Other elements are needed to bring a dramatic text to life-
The actors, who interpret the play.
The director, who decides how the play should be performed.
The audience, who watch the play.

What is Fiction?
Fiction ( fingere -lat.) refers to any narrative in prose or verse that is entirely or partly the work of the imagination. It most directly fulfils our innate need for storytelling.
Fiction, since its emergence in the form of the novel in the eighteenth century, has been the most popular genre in Western culture.

CHARACTER
Key questions for analyzing characters-
Their relation to the plot (major / minor).
The degree to which they are developed (complex/ one-dimensional).
Their growth in the course of story (the same/ have significant changes in their personalities).

PLOT
Basic elements-
Conflict ( outside/ within)
Suspense (denying the reader immediate access to information).
Subplot (a second story that is complete in its own right).

Narrators and Point of view
First-person narrators (point of view) and third- person narrators (omniscient, limited and dramatic objective ).
Stream of consciousness (an extension of either first or third- person narratives).

THEME
Theme is the central idea that directs and shapes matter of a story, play or poem.
An overt theme (clearly stated)/ An implied theme ( hidden in the actions).
The theme is the abstract, generalised comment or statement the author makes about the subject of the story.” What does the story mean?”, but not “What is the story about?”